1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to advertising devices, and more particularly to viewing structures that are deployable from the packaging exterior of a vended article to provide manually selectable visual images to the prospective purchaser.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The promotion and advertising of movies and videotaped musical performances is a robust and vigorous competitive endeavor, particularly in light of the large financial investments in the production thereof Most often these endeavors select for display over public media parts or portions of the entertainment piece, i.e., a movie or musical performance, and it is this promotion process that represents the major component of all advertising costs. This part of an advertising campaign, however, competes for public attention with the program matter then carried on the public channel and is therefore inherently limited. As an adjunct thereto, or even as an alternative, further advertising scheme are devised in which selected parts or portions of a movie or performance are imbedded as leaders (or sometimes trailers) displayed along with a primary rendition of another entertainment event. In each instance the advertising message is inextricably tied to the hosting event and is thus fixed to a particular audience.
Recently there has been a veritable avalanche of new technologies which dramatically changed the entertainment venue. Most of the entertainment market today is in the form of vendable articles like video discs, video cassettes, or even audio cassettes that are bought and then brought to the home of the viewer. In each instance various storage and handling concerns have dictated a relatively small, standardized package which is either directly inserted into the playing device or which houses the disc that is then inserted into the drive mechanism of the player. This small packaging surface leaves little space for advertising copy and as a result various techniques have been devised which, in one way or another, seek to render convenient individual inspection and perusal of selected scenes from the music video or movie that is offered for sale. Most often these techniques follow the path set in disc storage technology where various sectors on the disc are rendered accessible to be searched by the patron, as for example the systems described in U.S. Pat. No. RE32,115 issued to Lockwood, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,970,471 issued to Hill; and others. While suitable for the purposes intended this review process requires multiple viewing stations where the store patron can insert the disc or cartridge and review the advertising segments thereof, a costly proposition for a busy selling enterprise.
Advertising by selected segment exposure, moreover, has particular limitations in the entertainment business where the interests of marketing invariably compete with the limits of over-exposure. Simply, an entertainment product that is over-exposed during its marketing leaves little incentive for its eventual purchase and the advertiser, therefore, needs to select such alternative attention garnering means that do not compromise the story line nor disclose the whole of the musical rendition. Within these constraints the promoter or advertiser of films and videos engages in the very robust contest for the entertainment market share. In the past this narrow band was accommodated by the print industry, with large posters advertising selected images or scenes from the movie or musical rendition. As noted above, the major component of the current entertainment market has found its way onto small devices like a video cassette, a video disc or even a tape cartridge, often vended from racks or shelves with little space for print advertising. In consequence various alternative public relations devices followed to gain the proverbial eye level shelf space to one or another tape or disc, or to otherwise draw the attention of the customer to a particular entertainment product. Amongst these are other discs or cartridges that include promotional messages, like those exemplified above, or trailers on other entertainment products inviting the consumer to the next selection.
Video discs and tape cartridges are currently vended in standardized enclosures with little differentiation in their stacked or shelved exterior that can be utilized to garner attention. Moreover, even when a particular video disc or tape cartridge are found by the customer the small exterior dimensions of the packaging thereof leave little space for any information. A vigorous promoter is thus left with few mechanisms in his arsenal to advertise the entertainment product other than those that over-expose and thus compromise the product. Alternatives are therefore sought which allow viewing focus on some of the collateral aspects of the product like scene detail, historic background and other information that garners the customer""s interest without disclosing the whole of the piece.
In the past various viewing devices have been developed which in one way or another transport a continuous film strip across one or more viewing apertures. Examples of such viewing devices can be found in the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 3,706,439 issued to Skinner et al., 4,591,238 issued to Kitaoka et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,034 issued to Hoyt et al., and others. While suitable for the purposes intended each of the foregoing examples discloses a fairly cumbersome structure that does not lend itself for convenient adjunct deployment on a cartridge or disc case and which, moreover, are all of substantial complexity and therefore too costly for use as an advertising device. An inexpensive, collapsible viewing device useful as an attachment on the case or cartridge is therefore extensively sought and it is one such device that is disclosed herein.
Accordingly, it is the general purpose and object of the present invention to provide a collapsible viewing attachment that is conveniently stored on the exterior of a cassette or disc case.
Other objects of the invention are to provide a collapsible viewing device for deploying a continuous film loop in a stereoscopic viewing presentation.
Further objects of the invention are to provide an advertisement viewer attachable to a VHS cartridge or video disc case which is deployed along the edges thereof to retain the original storage dimensions.
Yet further objects of the invention are to provide a manually advanced viewer which is easy to produce, requires few parts and is therefore both reliable and inexpensive.
Briefly, these and other objects are accomplished within the present invention by providing a continuous film loop viewing assembly in which the film loop is transported by manually advanced rollers across a pair of viewing apertures. The film loop and the rollers are enclosed in a rectangular housing which also includes the apertures in one edge thereof Also included in the housing is a mirror structure which collects and directs the ambient lighting to the film frames subjacent the viewing apertures. In the first implementation the housing is dimensioned for engagement to the end edge of a VHS video tape cartridge and in its second form the viewer housing is pivoted from a stored position within a video or laser disc case to an alignment exterior thereto exposed for viewing. In both instances the inventive viewer is useful to display stereoscopic images to the prospective customer which either inform about the matter stored on the tape or disc or display other advertising information.
The foregoing mechanism is rendered particularly useful for promotional efforts by the very nature of its construction. Specifically, both forms of the inventive viewing assembly may utilize inexpensive material structures like a thin polymer sheet or cardboard to form the primary structure, the sheet material being folded and joined into a relatively narrow rectangular housing of a height generally equal to that of the cassette or disc case, the narrow edge dimensions of this structure then providing the surface through which the viewing apertures are formed. This narrow edge viewing surface is then expanded by unfolding shielding extensions that obscure background light formed in the folded surfaces adjacent each aperture, each aperture surface and also its adjacent shielding extensions comprising a dished or dimpled common surface which is upset across the folds in the course of the deployment of the shields defined by an arc segment cut in the adjacent panels. Thus in the stored position the shielding extensions are upset biased to align with the adjacent housing surface to be only unfolded therefrom for viewing.
The continuous film loop is then stretched underneath the apertures between the two manually advanced rollers to align correspondingly spaced image frame pairs for viewing. Each of these frames is backlit by a light collecting mirror within the housing which is exposed to ambient light through an exterior opening formed in the top surface of the housing. This back lighting, together with a dark non-reflective coloring of the surfaces adjacent each aperture, provide the necessary contrast and illumination for effective image viewing. Of course, stereoscopic depth imaging may be included in the image pairs to provide the further attention garnering inducement to the viewer. Accordingly, an inexpensive viewing structure is devised that can be engaged to the end of a cartridge or that is hinged from a stored position adjacent an interior edge of a disc case which is then useful in garnering the attention and interest of prospective customers. This interest garnering is effected by still images which therefore do not compromise the story line or theme of the entertainment product that is stored on the associated tape or disc.
It should be noted that the foregoing stereoscopic image presentation is illustrative only. For those instances where the information content predominates, single frame viewing can be effected by displacing the viewed film loop segment to the viewing focus of a set of lenses installed in each aperture. Moreover, compression of the vertical dimension can be achieved by inclining the viewed film portion over inclined rollers. Thus both a wide range of message densities can be accommodated as is a wide range of vended packaging dimensions, in an article that is both inexpensive and effective as a promotional device. In further adaptation the inventive viewer may be simply formed as an extension of any enclosure containing a record medium, to be inspected and utilized as a part of the purchase selection process.